Ask anyone in San Francisco to name the top issues in the city and unsheltered homelessness on the streets will be in the top three.
The question, though, is what should the solution be to address the crisis of thousands of people living unsheltered, on our streets, often in tents or other makeshift structures?
The debate on this issue has reached a fever pitch and it is dividing the City.
A recent federal injunction against citing or arresting when no alternative places to stay are offered resulted in a large rally in front of a federal courthouse that brought politicians, activists, and the media out.
The Governor has chimed in and there is talk of the case reaching the Supreme Court.
What is this injunction all about and how is it affecting the city’s ability to address street homelessness? What should the City be doing to address street homelessness, what is working and what is not working and what are the obstacles in the path of progress?
Finally what are the policy disagreements amongst folks working on or around this issue and what are the opportunities to work together?
Coming to Manny’s for this debate on September 26, 2023, are two folks who find themselves on opposite ends of this issue.
On one side we have Adam Mesnick who runs the Twitter handle @bettersoma which pinpoints and advocates for a more aggressive approach to addressing street homelessness and on the other side we have Jennifer Friedenbach who is the Executive Director of the Coalition on Homelessness, the organization suing the city in the current injunction.
Manny’s shows how we can have a civil, productive, constructive, and solutions oriented debate between folks with extensively very different perspectives on one of the most important issues affecting our City.
About Jennifer Friedenbach:
Jennifer is currently the Executive Director of the Coalition on Homelessness, San Francisco. She has worked for the Coalition for 25 years, as Executive Director, as organizing director, substance abuse and mental health work group coordinator and fundraiser. Previous to coming to San Francisco, Jennifer was Director of the Hunger and Homeless Action Coalition of San Mateo County. Ms. Friedenbach has a long history of community organizing, and has worked on a range of poverty-related issues including welfare rights, housing, homeless prevention, health care, disability, and human and civil rights.
During her tenure, she has achieved significant victories alongside homeless people and community members including crafting, Prop C Our City Our Home a tax on corporations that pays for homeless housing and will double San Francisco’s efforts to address homelessness, the creation of a local housing subsidy serving hundreds of homeless families, the major expansion of prevention efforts resulting in the halting of displacement of more then a 1,000 households, expansion of substance abuse treatment resulting in decreased overdoses and shorter waits, spearheaded numerous legislative reforms protecting the rights of homeless people, and garnered public investments in programs that have saved countless lives.
About Adam Mesnick:
Adam is a soma resident who runs Deli Board SF (their instagram @ delliboardsf) and the twitter account @ bettersoma. Deliboard launched in 2009 and in September 2011, moved to its current location.
Adam is a chef, soup and saucier, also a butcher, myasnik is russian word for butcher. Adam also has a sweet dog named Rico
